Posts Tagged With: men

A map of where reported sexual assaults on the UBC Vancouver campus in 2013 occurred. Source: RCMP (from Globe and Mail)

For almost every weekend since the end of September, a report of a sexual assault was filed ([1][2][3][4][5]). If the pattern holds (which hopefully it won’t) another attempt will be made sometime this weekend. While the presence of at least one sexual assailant on campus who appears to be becoming more comfortable as the semester goes on is scary enough, I am somewhat dismayed by the response by campus inhabitants. Due to the controversial topic being discussed, reader discretion is strongly and strictly advised. Continue reading →

It would have been nasty by itself, but then you get this video where the hosts on Sunrise actually find it funny that the guy’s getting pussy-whipped. It’s fascinating to see how the double-standard for sex-on-sex violence still exists: men are vilified if they hit a woman, but it’s somehow less serious if it’s the other way around. The question now is “why?”

I suppose a major part of this has to do with a patriarchal culture: women are considered to be objects and men are supposed to be strong and independent. Anything that threatens the image of a strong man is belittled by anything that suggests that he is “weak.” There is no way a woman can assault a man. These preconceptions have been challenged in this century so far with incidents like testicle pulling.

This is where I’m going to play devil’s advocate: with the advent of fighting for equal rights for everyone, certain pre-existing societal conventions should be revoked. Just as negative attitudes towards groups of people due to an inherent change that cannot be changed are frowned upon, positive attitudes towards those same groups of people associated with the trait that they have should be discouraged as well.

What does it mean in this case? Only circumstance and context should be considered. Sex, sexual orientation, race, etc. are merely qualifiers that describe the involved and should not be used to alter one’s judgment of them.